German Government May Ask Eichmann for Testimony on Nazi Murderers

April 3, 1962

HAMBURG (Apr. 2)

The West German Government may ask Adolf Eichmann for testimony on several hundred Nazi hard core “professional murderers,” once Eichmann’s appeal from his death sentence has run its course, it was announced here today by Erwin Schuele, the prosecutor who heads the Central Office for Investigating Nazi Crimes. Mr. Schuele did not indicate how such testimony would be arranged.

In an interview in Die Zeit, a Hamburg weekly, Mr. Schuele said: “Once Eichmann’s punishment is fixed finally and he has no more hope, it is entirely possible that he may tell the truth on several points that interest us very much and might help us to complete certain cases.”

Mr. Schuele said he was particularly interested in a group of about 1,000 Nazi professional murderers who directed and engineered the Nazi’s campaign of annihilation. More than half of them have not been tried, but many are known to be dead.